Taking Care of Jane For Lizzie
by Brown Eyes Parker
Summary: Lizzie, Jane's wife, calls Lisbon on the night she is murdered and asks her to take care of Jane for her if anything should happen. Alternative Universe. SSS for jisbonsessed.


Taking Care of Jane for Lizzie

**A Jane & Lisbon Story**

By Brown Eyes Parker

**Summery:**

**Jane's wife calls Lisbon the night that Red John kills her, because she knows that something's going to happen to her. She just has one request. . . that Lisbon takes care of Jane for her. MAJOR A/U. For jisbonsessed, my Summer Secret Santa.**

The phone rang and Lisbon reached for it sleepily. "Hello?"

"Teresa? I think there's somebody in the house!"

"Lizzie? Is that you?"

"Yes. . . Teresa, there's somebody in the house."

Lisbon yawned. "It's probably just Jane, home from that stupid talk show—"

"I don't think so. . . Patrick just called a few minutes ago. He had to stop at a client's house for something—"

"Listen! Hang up with me right now and call the police. I'll be right over, I promise."

"Its too late Teresa. Promise me. . . if anything happens to me, you'll take care of Patrick. He loves you almost as much as he loves me."

"Lizzie, don't talk like that. You'll be fine." Lisbon was out of bed and hurrying to get dressed.

"Please, _promise _me that you'll take care of him!"

Lisbon dropped the sweater, hearing the fear in Lizzie's voice. "Okay, I'll take care of him."

"_Promise_," Lizzie persisted.

"I promise," Lisbon said.

"Thank you. . . Teresa, I want you to know, if anything happens to me. . . you're my best friend. And I love you, you're the sister I never had—"

Then there was a muffled scream, and the phone clicked, cutting off their connection. Lisbon tried the rest of the night, but she couldn't get back in touch with Lizzie. Everything in her said to go over to Jane's house and check up on Lizzie and Felicity. But there was something stopping her too. . . a fear she'd find out that Lizzie was right.

"I'm sorry Lizzie. I didn't know that he was going to kill himself. I know you're wishing right now that you'd never asked me to take care of him. . ." a tear slid down Lisbon's cheek. "I'll try harder next time, I'll do better next time. I promise."

The wind blew around Lisbon, and she felt a sense of calm. A sense that Lizzie had forgiven her, and she knew that it wasn't exactly Lisbon's fault that Jane had tried to commit suicide. Lisbon knew that everything would be alright, and that she'd have plenty more chances to take care of Jane for Lizzie.

"Will you be okay?" Lisbon asked, after they had caught Red John.

"I'm fine," Jane replied, smiling at her. "Don't worry, I'm not going to check out on you anytime soon. You're stuck with me for a long time."

"Do you want to take some time off? To regroup and stuff?"

"Only if you take some time off too."

"If I take time off, I'll go insane."

"I'll go insane too, without somebody there to keep me from going insane."

Lisbon smiled at him tenderly. "Take some time off. I'll check in on you occasionally. . . just to see that you're still sane. And to keep you updated on the Red John case."

"You'll check on me every day," Jane said. "Or I'll be here, even if it's just for a few minutes. Or to get you to come and have lunch with me."

"I know."

"I'll go and fill out the required paperwork, then I'll be right back to take you out for a celebrateory lunch."

"Actually, I already have a lunch date. Could we, maybe, go out tomorrow?" Lisbon asked nervously.

Jane's smile lit up to his eyes. "As long as you want to go out with me."

"Tomorrow night then?"

He nodded. "Sounds good."

"I have to go," Lisbon said. "But I'll see you tomorrow."

"Goodbye," Jane answered, heading off fill out the required paperwork for his now mandatory vacation.

Lisbon's heart was almost beating in her ears as she made her way over to her 'lunch date'. She sat down and said, "Hey Lizzie. . . we need to talk. I have a problem." she sighed. "I. . . I fell in love with your husband. It just happened, I wasn't expecting it to happen to happen. And I definitely wasn't planning on it happening. When it did happen, I fought it. I fought it hard. But now, I think that Jane feels the same way that I do. And I don't want to fight it anymore. I do want your permission though. So, please give me a sign. Any sign—"

"_Lisbon_?"

"Is this your sign?" Lisbon whispered to Lizzie.

"I thought you had a lunch date."

"Well. . ." she flushed. "Sometimes on Fridays, I buy lunch and come here to talk to Lizzie. So, technically, I did have a lunch date."

"The two of you always did have lunch together on Friday, didn't you?" Jane sat down next to her. "So, does Elizabeth ever talk back to you?"

"Sometimes," Lisbon answered. "I think she may have just answered a question that I asked."

"Maybe it was just a coincidence," Jane said.

"Maybe she only talks to me." She bit her lip. "Did I tell you that I talked to her. . . probably only seconds before she died?"

Jane looked startled. "No. What did she say?"

"That she thought somebody was in the house." Tears welled up in Lisbon's eyes. "I was going over there to check on her, but. . . I never got the chance."

"It wasn't your fault," Jane said quickly. "Who knows what could have happened if you had went over there. Red John could have killed you too. If I had lost all three of you, I probably would have—" he let the statement hang in the air.

"There's something else. . . a promise that she made me make."

Jane glanced at her. "A _promise_?"

Lisbon nodded. "She made me promise to take care of you for her."

"This is going to sound so silly, but she made me promise to take care of _you _if anything happened to her. It was a week or two before she died."

Lisbon smiled bittersweetly. Lizzie had sent her a sign. She got up and brushed her jeans off. "Do you still want to go and get lunch? Suddenly, I'm starving."

"You go ahead. I'll be right there," Jane said. When Lisbon was completely out of sight, he turned to Lizzie's grave. He took his ring off his finger and a box out of his pocket. He placed the ring in the box. He slipped it back into his pocket. "Elizabeth, I'm going to ask Lisbon to marry me. I love her and want to spend the rest of my life making her happy. I want to spend the rest of my life with her. But I want to know you're okay with it. . . send me a sign. Any sign, I don't care—"

"Jane?" Lisbon called. "I forgot my keys!"

Jane stood up and handed her the keys. She was smiling at him in the way only she smiled at him. And when their hands made contact, she held on tightly. He didn't know if this was the sign he was looking for, or not. And he didn't want to guess. He figured that he'd know what the sign was when it came. But for now, he was sure that Elizabeth didn't mind that he had fallen for Lisbon. And that wherever she was, she was smiling.

**_The End_**


End file.
